Winter Of 1947

[nicebloke1]

Did anyone see this on TV last night. Dare say its a repeat, but its the first time I've seen it. Its normally a repeat of the sixties winter. Thats what you call a real hard time, worth watching if you've not seen it.

[nicebloke1]

Oh, and the part that made me laugh was they fixed to jet engines on a rolling trolly on the railtrack, fired them up to melt the snow and ice, but there was so much heat that came from the engines it buckled the track. Not a great idea :●)

[barry1010]

You don't know untill you try 😁

[nicebloke1]

Oh they never stopped trying for sure.

[vulcan42]

" Oh, and the part that made me laugh was they fixed to jet engines on a rolling trolly on the railtrack, fired them up to melt the snow and ice,"

During the 63 winter we had to keep our runways open for the V bomber squadrons. One bright spark came up with the idea of strapping a jet engine vertically to a cradle and melt all the snow. It worked, until the ice refroze, we had the longest skating rink in Warwickshire.

[KUSTARD]

Having seen the programme a while back I was fascinated and wished I could have asked my mother about it all.  I was born at 1.50 in the morning in February 1947.  I was born in the bedroom at home.  We had no heating apart from a coal fire downstairs and only gas lighting downstairs so how the poor woman coped I don't know.  I was actually named after the midwife and never liked my name but can understand why now.

As far as 1963 goes, I was doing my mock 'O' levels at the time.  One of our school buildings had been demolished to make way for a new one and we were in temporary wooden huts with no heating, all wearing coats, scarves and gloves.  I don't know how we managed to write!!!  I had a six mile bus journey to school but the bus never stopped running and the school never closed.  We were much hardier people in those days and, on looking back, I'll always be glad I was born when I was!!!!

[10ClarionSt]

I wasn't around then. I was born the following year. I was one of the first NHS babies, doncher no? Anyway, the winter of 1947 was one reason why the USA, under the Marshall Plan, allocated more money to Germany than was originally planned, and diverted some of it from Britains' share. So we didn't get as much as we should have. Or is it shud of? 😄

[10ClarionSt]

I remember a guy I worked with in the 1960's telling me that one time in the winter of 1947, in A-U-L where he lived, he'd just been to the local coal merchants and put a sack of coal on a baby trolley, pushed it out of the yard onto the road and was walking slowly with it, holding all the traffic up. He couldn't get on the pavement with it because the snow was piled too high. A copper came up to him and yelled at him to get that pram on the pavement! Tommy turned to the copper and, in deepest Lancashire accent, shouted back: "Can thy get it ont f****** pavement?!" I often chuckle about that. Harsh realities! 

[saintpeter48]

What channel was it on, i would love to see it.

I was born 20 minutes past midnight on January 1st 1948, I missed being born in 1947 by 20 minutes!

My parents often recalled that bad winter, I left school in December 1962 and I well remember the bad winter of 1963, my first job as an apprentice chef was clearing snow away from the shop front!!